Creative Inspirations

This is a single page enrichment handout that includes 9 choice activities for students to complete in 3 categories: reading, writing, and creating. The activities support the text Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and are open ended. Access to notebook paper, construction paper, and a collection of owl books and books by Jane Yolen will be needed for students to complete the various activities. One activity requires a shoe box and typical art supplies should be provided as well. I used this for 2nd

I teach gifted students in our elementary and wanted to create an open-ended introduction activity that encouraged creativity and really had them thinking. Here's what I came up with! It's designed as a 3-part challenge with teacher checkpoints along the way. Students are challenged to creatively introduce themselves within the parameters outlined. I'm excited to hear how your students do! It's a great way to support creative thinking in the beginning of the year. It now includes a PBL sty

This is an introduction to collective nouns. I'm using this with my second graders as my district adopts the new Common Core standards.

This slideshow includes 18 slides- The first 2 slides include the Common Core standards for K-3 that are addressed. The 3rd slide shows a few teaching notes from me. The slideshow is definitely geared towards more 2nd- 3rd grade though it does fit some of the Language standards for K-1 so I included those. The rest of the slides include notes and activities for the students to complete. I enjoy using activities where I don’t have to copy a bunch of worksheets and where the activities are aut

I use this interest survey as a beginning of the year introduction to the students. I've used a variation with my 2nd and 3rd graders but this year I'm using it with 2nd grade gifted students/ parents. The first two pages are for the student to fill out and the third page is for the parents (contact info and their perspective about their child).

This is a great experiment reflection you can give for most experiments. This is geared towards 2nd-3rd graders. My unit included an in depth study of nonfiction and then my students explored questions they came up with as they learned about topics within the forces/ motion umbrella. We used the reflection after a few experiments so that students could tailor an experiment that could offer some evidence to support a hypothesis. I can email you the Word version so that you can make appropriat

This is a 0-5 rating scale for students to convey their knowledge of various new vocabulary words or concepts. We'll use this to drive instruction (what do the students already know) and help us differentiate lessons. I made color copies to laminate and place at each table and I showed the pdf on our smartboard.

This is a great tiered math extension for 5th graders that will get them excited. I introduced this activity and students asked to come in during recess to work on it! Students are asked to create a game board with VERY specific math criteria. There are 3 levels, so that all students can work on this when they finish with their work. It also includes a rubric for easy grading. The math skills involved include: the following vocabulary words:  divisor, dividend, quotient, divisible, factor,

I created this for my 2nd grade teachers to use as an extension of their time and money units. It's geared to be a bit more open-ended! I included a KEY for the problems that have concrete answers. This is a pdf document to keep the formatting however I would love to email you the Word version so that you can modify activities as needed. Just let me know! Enjoy!

I created this introductory lesson for my 2nd grade gifted students to do before learning about Bloom's Taxonomy. We then spent some time learning about those levels of thinking and ended with the project included in this product. The final project took a few sessions but the products were amazing! The final project is open-ended but the 1st page includes the directions, criteria, and a rubric to give feedback. I don't give grades, but I do use the rubrics to offer feedback to students. Pl

Inspirational poster for the classroom to encourage more thinking, innovation, and creativity... more lightbulb moments! A student brought me the lightbulb in this item and I couldn't resist turning it into a poster!

I work as an instructional coach and help teachers create engaging activities that extend concepts. My 5th grade team was looking for vocabulary activities they could for any unit so I came up with this choice board. It would be a great extension for 4th graders and probably would be benefit 6th graders too. I hope you find it helpful! This includes one page print out that includes 9 open-ended activities focusing on vocabulary within a text or story. Students can choose 1 activity in each

After introducing growth mindset to students, I created this activity as the next step to practice applying a growth mindset in the classroom. It helps bridge the gap from knowing about mindset to being reminded what it takes to apply a growth mindset when things get tricky. It helps students recognize growth mindset language and can encourage students to support each other.

Looking for some fun, engaging activities that also support math concepts? This choice board integrates reading and math and can be used as an extension (especially for 1st grade) or as a way to guide independent activities (2nd-3rd grade). You might have students choose 1 activity to complete from each column. Just offer lined paper and blank paper for your students to use to do their work.

This is a great visual to use in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and even 5th grade to help students understand place value. My 5th graders extended the train and with younger students, I only use a few cars of the train. While the place value standard is more in 2nd grade, I find that this visual really supports understanding the foundations of place value for grades 3-5.

This product includes 2 pages. The first page is a comparison matrix to compare/ contrast hurricanes and tornadoes (to supplement the 4th Grade Journeys lesson on hurricanes) and is modeled after Marzano's best practices. It includes a space for students to identify the similarities and differences and come up with their own conclusions about the 2 storms. The second page is a creative extension with a rubric for scoring. This is a great supplement for a weather unit, research, or to add so

Students preview and outline the topics they may learn in a nonfiction text. Students can preview a book using post-its and then record the information on the "roadmap" or they can simply record the topics on the "roadmap." We use lots of post-its to record thinking and this was my "post-it saving" worksheet so that we could keep a record of what we might learn without losing all those post-its! :)

This is for you if you’re... • Ready to speed up your lesson planning process • Unclear and feeling stuck about how to engage students better with the weight of the hefty State standards • Struggling to keep your head above water and losing interest in teaching • Committed to making a bigger impact while enjoying the inspiring teaching career you envisioned years ago

You are one step closer to getting feedback from the most important voice in education- your students. By offering your students the opportunity to give you feedback AND by willingly accepting it, you are showing up a brilliant, vulnerable human. Brené Brown says that vulnerability is “not winning or losing: it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.” Today you chose to show up. You are modeling how to ask for, receive, and grow from feedback. #Lif